On this Sunday, I talked about Ephesians 1:3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Anointed who has blessed us in Anointed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." Please note that here I translate the Greek word, "Christ" to its English equivalent, "Anointed." This is perhaps a small change but it helps us recall the kings of the Old Testament and when we do a whole world of understanding opens up to us. To really understand this verse here in Ephesians, let's follow where Paul is leading us. I would argue that he leads us first to 2 Samuel 23, the last words of David. Here we see a poem and a beautiful one. David speaks of a righteous ruler, "And as light of morning rises, no clouds, through clear shining from rain grass springs from earth." And then, "Is not my house thus with God?" David speaks of an everlasting covenant, of salvation, of the delight of God and then these words, "In me to him, shall he grow it." Now all this is obviously poetry but we can see a vivid illustration of that last haiku-like phrase. Where? --in the story of David and Goliath. In that story it becomes clear how God in David is growing his kingdom, his salvation, his everlasting covenant. Think of the words of the young shepherd boy to the dispirited troops of the armies of the living God. Think of David's comforting of King Saul, "Let no man's heart fail within him because of this uncircumcised Philistine." Here, even before David destroys Goliath, we see God "growing" salvation in this little shepherd boy. In the same way, in Jesus we see the everlasting covenant, salvation and the delight of the Lord growing as one by one they come into the kingdom, as brother or sister or congregation grows in the gifts of the Spirit, grows wisdom, love, hope, faith, the list goes on.
But there's one thing more, please notice that Ephesians 1:3 is in the past tense, pointing us to the truth: Not only are we going toward the happy ending but we are also in the happy ending, "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Now, I know it doesn't seem like this all the time. We have many burdens, diseases and sins that hold us back and yet what we see with our eyes is not reliable. We lean NOT on our own understanding but rather on the words of Jesus. He said,"It is finished" and it is finished for sin and death and the devil. Jesus knows the truth and leads us there. "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
